1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a handheld device, and more particularly to a handheld device with tract input function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with the rapid advance in electronic industry, the renewal and updating in the techniques of mobile telecommunication are vast and fast, and various handheld devices such as mobile phone and PDA are invented and marketed one after another. Take the mobile phone for example, apart from the basic function of voice communication, other functions such as voice mail and short message are also provided to further enhance the function of a mobile phone.
Since short message is an important function for the user, the handiness of message input has much to do with operational convenience and is a crucial factor in terms of the selection and purchase of a mobile phone. The short message normally includes, for example, characters of English or Chinese, and a plurality of existing symbols. Take Chinese characters in for example, the input method may be Mandarin phonetic symbol (MPS) input method, Pinyin input method or stroke input method, which may differ according to the model and the make chosen.
However, all of the input methods have certain degree of operational inconvenience for requiring some kind of input skills. Take the input methods of Chinese characters for example. If the MPS input method is used and the user is not familiar with pronunciation and Mandarin phonetic symbol system, the user will waste a large amount of time struggling with the correct spelling of Mandarin phonetic system. If the stroke input method is used, the user needs to figure out the number of strokes used in a character, moreover, it is rather time consuming for the user to pick up a character from a long list of characters having the same number of strokes. If the Pinyin input method is used, the user needs to be familiar with either the General Pinyin system or the Hanyu Pinyin system.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop an easy and simple input method, which can be accepted by the majority of users, so as to resolve the inconvenience of inputting characters of any language in a conventional mobile.